The moment his foot touched the first step he was instantly attacked by the various elements; it was evident that they were made out of the same mana crystals as the rest of this place but polished to an unimaginable degree.
Otherwise, there would be no way their aura would be so easily available, it had to be known that the higher quality the mana stone, the more difficult it was to get the mana out of it. And this was even more so for one with an element, much less one with 9, 4 of which were the strongest.
His leg was immediately overrun with these various berserk elements, with the spirit element in particular sapping away at his stamina. With the rate it was going it would take a few years of just standing there with his current vitality to exhaust him to any extent, but had it been before becoming a saint and transforming into a high human then he might have lasted a few seconds at most.
But before he could even think about it his talent suddenly kicked back in resisting all but one of the elements, it seemed to have built up some sort of resistance to this level of the spirit element, but it wasn't yet immune.
His body was no longer being damaged but his stamina was still being sapped very slowly, and it seemed to slow down every second.
All this happened in a few milliseconds and an observer would not notice anything wrong with his gait. In a few seconds he managed to scale the flight of stairs that seemed to be fit for a giant and continue on his way, by the time he got to the top his talent gained full immunity to this level of the spirit element.
While he leisurely made his way up the stairs, there was someone else that was much more stressed out looking at him.
"How did he manage to climb those stairs so quickly!? Even a saint would collapse if they touched it while the formation was active." Sitting on a throne made out of ordinary stone that was in the center of a giant room, sat a small female sun eater. Though it would be difficult to tell from just looking at her, she looked all too human if not for her child sized body but relatively adult sized proportions. Not even the signature four arms could be seen.
In front of her was a large mirror that could show everything that was going on in the palace, and currently it had its focus on Ray. On the arm of the throne was a mana crystal that was quickly losing color, and next to it sat a pile of those ordinary looking stones.
"No worry, I will just have to make it stronger. The body of this invader would be very valuable to master. There haven't been many recently and she is starting to get displeased, but this one should cover me for a few hundred years." Thinking back the displeased face of her master and knowing what she was capable of, the sun eater shivered.
"If it wasn't for that old hag there would be no reason for me to seek her out, but I had no choice. That power hungry slut wouldn't pass down the throne no matter how much I pleaded. Couldn't she see that the power and purity of every new generation was steadily falling, it was a clear sign that her bloodline was exhausted and should have let me take charge." She wildly cursed but thinking back to the success of the colony after her master had taken charge, she couldn't have been more pleased. Every cycle a new Greater sun eater would be born, each more powerful than the last.
"Well now look at her, while she is forced to produce more and more than she could ever imagine, I have all the power. Isn't that what she wanted, saying that I wouldn't be able to handle the pressure and that my bloodline wasn't pure enough." Removing the exhausted mana crystal and throwing it into the pile she put an even larger one in.
"When I catch this fish, master will no doubt purify my bloodline even more! Then I will be even more beautiful and even more powerful, truly fit for a queen! HAHAHAHAHA!" With a wave of her hand the drain from the throne increased as she made the formation run even faster.
...….................
As Ray was walking through the giant palace, he took the time to sort out some things back in the subspace. With a simple thought and a flash of golden light, materials from all around the subspace converged and a clone appeared in the subspace.
With the current power of this soul and vitality he could very easily make a clone of sorts that was the same as he was in all ways except physical; with their minds linked it was as if he had two bodies that he could independently control.
This wasn't something that he had learned directly from Itroth however, it was based off of one of the pinnacle arts of the eternal ghost set.
It was called the eternal soul clone, and it was similar to Ray's cloning art but not as intensive, you were to split a part of your mind and condense an ethereal body out of mana for it to reside in.
Then you would send it out to gather information and then reabsorb it at a later date when you were ready. A very useful ability but nowhere on par with Ray's clone.
But this couldn't be helped, creating a flesh and blood body that was near identical would have been easier than breathing for Itroth at his peak, but for matters relating to the soul 'near identical' wouldn't be anywhere near enough.
To create this clone Ray split off a part of his soul and condensed it into a body created out of the blood essence of the wyrms, his own heart blood as well as the bodies of the hobgoblins; he wasn't at the point of creating a clone purely out of mana yet.
Using his intensive knowledge of his own body, as well as using his talent as a guide, he used these raw materials to forge an entirely identical body as otherwise there would be some backlash from his soul. It was such a perfect remake that not even identical twins could compare.
It had about 10% of his power, and it would stay 10% regardless of how strong he got, which would currently put it above a peak grandmaster tier but not enough to be classified as a saint.
Through this body he began to manage the subspace.
The landmass of the main island hadn't changed since last year and one of the mountains had its top cut off. There sat a simple, yet luxurious mansion created out of gerp wood and 100% pure mana stones. But this wasn't simple gerp wood, it shined blue and was translucent as it was soaked in mana for who knows how long. At first it looked like the size of a regular mansion, but that was at a far. As one got closer, they would realize that this building was unimaginably large, it took up most of the space on this mountain top and the rest of the land was covered in different kinds of foliage.
Ray went out of his way to select the ones that were fragrant and had strong medicinal effects that passively strengthen the bodies of those who lived there.
In one of the many rooms, a beautiful woman sat over a stove while two men were helping her prepare food. One of them was unbelievably handsome with dark gold features and the other was no less handsome but was dragged down by his obvious child-like physique.
Naturally these people were Laura, Yogan and James. And they were cooking up a Bonafide feast. Everything that was edible in the subspace was harvested, cleaned and prepared to perfection. And the one that was the obvious lead wasn't Laura as one would expect, but it was James.
But after a little bit of consideration, it made sense. James had lived on his own having to care for his younger brother for years so he would naturally know how to cook and both Laura and Yogan were both beasts before this. Laura didn't cook her food before eating and Yogan would burn it to near ashes before consuming it.
"Hey! Watch it!" James suddenly screamed at Laura. She seemed to have gotten temporarily distracted and the meat was starting to burn. What she was cooking was wyrm meat, so they needed a very high temperature to even start to cook it. A single lapse in judgment could lead to an entire steak being ruined.
"Okay, Okay." Even the bold Laura was powerless in the face of such righteous berating.
Ever since James had entered the subspace, he stopped acting so timid and on edge. Something about Ray made him feel a safety that he had never felt before even if he had only ever interacted with his soul projection.
Especially after learning of how he dealt with the still living Brudos and letting him retrieve his brother with the assistance of Laura half a year ago he was even more grateful.
So, after learning that he was going to meet Ray face to face for the first time, he was naturally going to make sure that everything was perfect.
"And you too." He said to Yogan as he made his way out of the room. "Make sure that you don't mess up the bread. Right now, I have to go wake up Jason."
"There is no need." Just as he was about to step out, Ray came in from another door aiding a young Jason to the table. "I figured that I should get him as I was coming, though I am a bit embarrassed to say that I got lost in my own home. Without him I might not have made it in time."
While this mega mansion was built with his blessings, he didn't really pay much attention to it before now. He had been cultivating the Golden Overlord Body and hadn't been able to move. The most he could have done was send a spiritual clone but as that would affect his cultivation he didn't do so very often.
"There is no need to be so polite Mr. Higan, you could have very easily gotten here. Had it not been for me you wouldn't have had to wait for so long." This time it was Jason who was speaking, he had a congenital disease that caused him to be sickly and near bedridden. He had to be escorted everywhere he went lest he collapse out of exhaustion.
"Please, I told you to call me Ray. From the moment I let you enter this place I already accepted you as family and such stiff vernacular makes me feel uncomfortable." Ray shifted his focus. "And Laura, how are the kids doing? I'd look for myself, but I'd rather respect your privacy."
As the master of the subspace, he could see everything that was going on if he wanted to, but out of respect for its current inhabitants, he refrained from doing so. This was especially so for Laura, she seemed to have a natural disgust for clothing and would spend most of her time alone completely naked.
Even now she wasn't wearing much.
Doing a clumsy looking bow, exposing even more of herself, she responded. "They haven't changed much from the last time you saw them, if only a little bit bigger. Beasts like me develop slowly and it's even more so as they transform so prematurely."
"That's good to hear, I'll have to go see them myself. But don't do that again. As I said you all are a part of my family, and such stiff etiquette ruins the mood." As he said so Laura glanced over to James with an 'I told you so' plastered all over her face.
"But anyway, it's been almost two years since I've eaten anything, and all of this looked absolutely amazing. Let's eat first and then get down to business."